Obesity is the second most important cause of preventable death in the United States, exceeded only by cigarette smoking. Obesity is estimated to afflict 58,000,000 people and contribute to 300,000 deaths annually in the United States, and its prevalence is increasing. Individuals suffering from the disease are at increased risk of illness from hypertension, lipid disorders, coronary heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, gall bladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and certain cancers.
Obesity develops when there is an excess of energy intake over energy usage. The causes of this excess may vary from patient to patient and are believed to stem from various genetic, social and environmental factors. Current research supports the view that, under identical environmental conditions, different people gain weight at different rates and the amount they gain seems to be genetically determined. It has been proposed that natural selection caused our distant ancestors to acquire ‘thrifty genes’ which boosted the ability to store fat from each feast in order to sustain the body through the next famine. In today's environment of a surfeit of high fat, high calorie ‘western style’ food, ‘thrifty genes’ have become a liability.
More and more scientists and physicians are coming to reject the traditional belief that poor diet and lack of exercise are solely to blame for obesity and are increasingly tending to view it as a medical condition. Health economists, using prospective studies and national health statistics, have calculated the costs of obesity in the US in 1995 at $99.2 billion. By 2005 it is estimated that more than 120 million people in the world will be obese. The economic impact of obesity in the US is now comparable to that of diabetes and ranks alongside expenditure on heart disease and hypertension. Medical researchers calculate that at least 88% of all cases of type II diabetes, 57% of coronary heart disease cases, 11% of breast cancers, and 10% of colon cancers diagnosed in overweight Americans are attributable to obesity.
The World Health Organization has classified the obesity condition as an epidemic, and has set up a special task force to tackle one of the greatest risks to human health and well-being.
There remains a need for obesity and/or diabetes specific markers. There remains a need for reagents and kits which can be used to detect the presence of obesity and/or diabetes markers in samples from patients. There remains a need for reagents and kits which can be used to detect the future propensity of developing obesity and/or diabetes in samples from patients. There remains a need for methods of screening and diagnosing individuals who have obesity and/or diabetes and methods of monitoring response to treatment, disease progression and disease recurrence in patients diagnosed with obesity and/or diabetes. There remains a need for reagents, kits and methods for determining the type of obesity and/or diabetes that an individual who is obese has. There remains a need for compositions which can specifically target obesity and/or diabetes related cells. There remains a need for improved methods of treating individuals who are suspected of suffering from obesity and/or diabetes.